Andrew Hill, Kinglake National Park - Jan 2014 (Day-hike)

It's been over 3 months since I had hip surgery.  I will blog about the details of that separately.  For now, I just want to say that the core recovery from a hip replacement is very quick - you can be walking around normally within 4-5 weeks.  Full recovery takes a few months and a common trap for folks with newly replaced hips is to go too hard, too soon.  Bad shit can happen, like getting a cracked femur.  (ugh).  So, despite the fact that I reeeeeeally miss getting out into the Victorian alps, I've had to bide my time, while the full healing occurs.

Apart from the usual bunch of exercises from the Physio [Side note: Physios must surely be the most frustrated healthcare professionals.  I mean, does anybody ever stick with their recommended exercises?], I have been adding a bunch of exercises to build back my strength - squats mostly - and doing lots of walking.  To build up for the multi-day hikes, I have started doing a few day hikes. This was the first one.

Kinglake National Park is only 40 minutes drive from my home in Melbourne's NE suburbs, so it was a good option for my first forays back into the bush.   To beat the summer heat I headed off early on the Saturday morning, parking my car at the Gums Camping Area.  Nice spot for a night or so for a couple or a young family. Most of the camping sites were occupied.

Sign at the entrance to the Gums Camping Area.  It's a lovely little camping area.  Most of the dozen or so sites have a car and camping space plus a fire pit, with hot plate.  

The walk starts on the main road, opposite the entrance to the camp site.   It follows a well-graded track (you could just about take a 2WD up it in dry weather) that grows increasingly steep. I reached the summit of Andrew Hill after 40 mins.

Andrew Hill Track.  

No caption necessary!

The author, enjoying the self-referencing location

The descent to Mountain Creek Track went through some really beautiful, tranquil forest surrounds.

Descending the southern end of Andrew Hill Track

Mountain Creek Track

Mountain Creek Track

Ant feast

The 'hill' bit of the walk ends around the 10 km point, where I reached Island Creek Picnic Area.  From there it was a very pleasant half hour walk back to the Gums Camping Ground, following Island Creek.

Island Creek

This was a nice walk and I would recommend it. You can do it as a stroll or you can step it up and turn it into a decent workout.  It would also be a a good trail run.

As for the hip? It was a little sore after the walk, but this went away after a day or so.  So, a successful start back onto the trails.

The key facts:

Distance: 11.5 km
Time: 3 hours
References: 
   "Daywalks Around Melbourne" Glenn Tempest. Walk #57. Avail. from Open Spaces Publishing;
   Parks Victoria page for Kinglake National Park.
Navigation: The trail is along well maintained tracks with good signage
Challenge level:  Those with moderate fitness should knock this over in 3-3.5 hours. If you're a slow walker or you are taking younger children, you should allow 4-4.5 hours.
Phone reception: Good reception on the summit of Andrew Hill and in most of the trail.
Water: From Island Creek